The lo­cal coun­cil voted against fund­ing for the world cham­pi­onship event, but the fi­nan­cial in­put from Coffs Har­bour was not a deal­breaker for Rally Aus­tralia.

“We are told the amount of money is min­i­mal in re­gard to the whole bud­get for the event,” said Ma­ho­nen. “This is an elec­tion year and it seems there is some pol­i­tics go­ing on. I can con­firm that the rally takes place. They are not in dan­ger, it will hap­pen.”

Rally Aus­tralia chair­man Ben Rains­ford said three per cent of the over­all bud­get comes from Coffs and he con­firmed a new venue could be sought.

“Mov­ing the event is not the de­sired so­lu­tion,” said Rains­ford. “But there are al­ter­na­tive lo­ca­tions and there are al­ter­na­tive in­come streams. This is not the end of Rally Aus­tralia.”

Rains­ford added that there has been sig­nif­i­cant and vo­cal back­lash lo­cally against the coun­cil­lors’ vote.